Graham resisted spending on craft needed for the current war while accepting expensive battleships intended for a future conflict with France. Napier's request for gunboats and mortar vessels brought advice to hire Swedish steamers, and the Admiralty improvised gunboats from old steam packets. One of those makeshift vessels blew up. The Baltic bombardment requirement eventually led to a force of floating batteries, blockships, gunboats, and mortar vessels alongside French support. Graham justified the £650,000 programme to Gladstone by pointing to its postwar usefulness for coastal defence.
Notable Point · 1:17:58-1:19:06
How Baltic bombardment needs secured new small craft
A need for shallow-water bombardment craft finally overcame resistance to gunboat spending when the program was also justified for postwar coastal defence.